The First Opera Ever - The Gregorian Singers

Rappresentatione di Anima, e di Corpo:
The First Opera Ever*
Maria Jette
The Gregorian Singers
in collaboration with
The St. Olaf College
Early Music Ensembles
The Twin Cities Lute Co-op
Dance Revels Moving History
and
The University of Minnesota
Opera Department
Sunday, March 2, 4:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on-the-Hill
1524 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
www.thegregoriansingers.org
Welcome!
This performance is presented by
The Gregorian Singers Monte Mason, director, in collaboration with
Phillip Rukavina and the Twin Cities Lute Cooperative
Gerald Hoekstra and the Early Music Department of St. Olaf College, Northfield
Jane Skinner Peck and the dancers of Dance Revels Moving History
David Walsh and the The University of Minnesota/Twin Cities Opera Department
Laura Hynes, Producer
For forty-one years, The Gregorian Singers has consistently presented early and 20th–21st century
sacred choral music. This event represents a significant and exciting new venture into the realm of
other musical possibilities, all the while maintaining our vision for the presentation of early music.
Your attendance here this afternoon helps us recognize the value of such a venture and we hope for
many such concerts in the years to come. ~ MMM
Prior to this event, two workshops were given to help educate and develop interest in this project.
These were presented at the University of Minnesota Opera Workshop Class on February 6, and
at the Coffman Condominium retirement center, Minneapolis, on February 24. The students were
introduced to the earliest opera extant, and elements of historical context and baroque vocal styles
were presented. At the Coffman Condominium presentation, this rarely heard “First Opera” was
presented with an emphasis on historical context and performance. In both workshops artists from
the performing ensemble demonstrated parts of the opera as musical examples.
This performance is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota
through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council,
thanks to a legislative appropriation
from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Please turn to page 4 for information on ensembles and performers, to page 6 for program notes
and a time line, and to page 18 for information on upcoming events of participating groups.
Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo
by Emilio de’ Cavalieri (1550-1602)
Instrumental Sinfonias (Cristofano Malvezzi)
Act I
Time tells us to do good works because time passes quickly and death follows. The Chorus, followed
by the Intellect, offer their comments, followed by a debate between Soul and Body about the true
purpose of life.
Act II
The conflict between the forces of worldliness and those of the spirit intensify with the appearance of
additional characters: Pleasure, two companions, Worldly Life, and a Guardian Angel. In this act the
beautiful clothing is metaphorically stripped away from Pleasure and Worldly Life, revealing their
true ugliness, and Body and Soul drive them off the stage.
Act III
Hell opens up to show us the spirits of the damned, followed by the appearance of the blessed souls
in Heaven. Soul, Body, Intellect, and Counsel together urge the audience to love God and shun the
“defrauding world,” and together with the Chorus sing praises to God.
Anima (Soul)
Maria Jette
Corpo (Body)
Nick Chalmers
Tempo (Time)
Emory Tower
Intelletto (Intellect)
Piacere con due compagni (Pleasure and Two Companions)
Angelo Custode (Guardian Angel)
Consiglio (Counsel)
Vita Mondana (Worldly Life)
Anime Dannate (Damned Souls)
Anime Beate (Blessed Souls)
Echo
Patrick Terry
Guillermo Rodriguez
Emory Tower
Jacob Fossing
Lauren Feider
Sara Yoder
Lauren Hahn
Nathaniel Hendrix (solo)
Ryan Coopergard
Jocque Warner
Jacob Fossing
Sophia Magro (solo)
Elysa Bond
Lauren Hahn
Christa Schmidt
Elysa Bond
The Gregorian Singers
St. Olaf Early Music Singers
Twin Cities Lute Cooperative St. Olaf Collegium Musicum Dancers of Dance Revels Moving History
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Participating in This Performance
The Gregorian Singers
Monte Mason, Founding Director
Soprano: Deana Davis, Gabrielle Doran, Katie Eakright, Elina Kala, Mary Mason
Alto: J Michael Compton, Lauren Vick
Tenor: Nick Chalmers, Jonathan Sill
Bass: Henry Dougherty, Steven Hodulik, Samuel Willodson
University
Singers
Patrick Terry (Intelletto)
Sara Lin Yoder (Consiglio)
Lauren Feider (Angelo Custode)
of
Minnesota
Dancers
(working with Dance Revels Moving History)
Michelle Lemon
Itly Thayieng
St. Olaf College
St. Olaf Collegium Musicum
Dr. Gerald Hoekstra, director
St. Olaf Early Music Singers
Dr. Gerald Hoekstra, director
String Ensemble
Lindsie Katz, Baroque violin
Jared Brown, Baroque violin
Katherin Canon, tenor viol
Isaac Maier, bass viol
Omar Macias, bass viol
Elysa Bond, soprano (Anima Beata, Echo)
Lauren Hahn, soprano
(Vita Mondana, Anima Beata)
Sophia Magro, soprano (Anima Beata)
Christa Schmidt, soprano (Anima Beata)
Kasha Prinzing, alto
Annamarie Pearson, alto
Xuan He, alto
Guillermo Rodriguez, tenor (Piacere)
Ryan Coopergard, tenor (Anima Dannate)
Jocque Warner, tenor (Anima Dannate)
Charlie Baird, tenor
John Holmstrom, tenor
Will Holt, tenor
Zach Rolfs, tenor
Emory Tower, bass (Tempo, Compangno)
Nathaniel Hendrix, bass (Anima Dannate)
Jacob Fossing, bass (Compangno)
Sebastian Surom, bass
Recorder Ensemble
Kayla Espindola, soprano recorder
Eric Broker, soprano recorder
Jonathan Sanchez, alto recorder
Donyell Sison, tenor recorder
Sebastian Surom, tenor recorder
Christopher Steer, bass recorder
Wind Ensemble
Gerald Hoekstra, cornett
Ramsey Walker, tenor sackbut
Antonio Patrick, tenor sackbut
Abigail Senuty, tenor sackbut
Linnea Pierson, bass dulcian
Twin Cities Lute Cooperative
Mary Burke, viola da gamba ~ Bruce Jacobs, organ
Phillip Rukavina, liuto attiorbato ~ Thomas Walker Jr., bass lute

Laura Hynes ~ Producer
Elizabeth Windnagel ~ Assistant Stage Manager
Jane Skinner Peck ~ Dancer / Choreographer
Victoria McKean ~ Costume/Make-up
Jessica Solinsky ~ Lighting
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Acknowledgements
Tiffany Skidmore ~ Grant Assistance, Support
Lisa Marshall ~ University of Minnesota Public Relations Communication Consultant
Julie Rithaler ~ Costumes (on loan from University of Minnesota Opera Theatre)
Marlene Rukavina ~ Supertitles
Mary Mason - Cover Design, Program Notes, Program Support
Susan Barksdale ~ Program Booklet
Dance Revels Moving History ~ Costume Accessories and Props
Twin Cities
The Rev. Mark Thompson and St. Paul’s on-the-Hill and El Santo Niño Jesús, St. Paul
Paul Thatcher ~ reception
David Walsh ~ Opera Department, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities:
Costume shop; Workshop and rehearsal space
Bruce Jacobs ~ Continuo rehearsal space
St. Olaf College, Northfield
Barb Barth ~ Room Reservations and Posters
The Rev. Matt Marohl, Chaplain ~ Chapel Arrangements
Jeff O’Donnell ~ Director of Broadcast/Media Services
Concert Patrons
We gratefully acknowledge those who have given directly to help offset the expenditures
of this production:
Minnesota Regional Arts Council
Phil Asgian, Marjory and Gary Dietz, Henry Dougherty
Bruce Jacobson, Darlene Petit and Karen Olson, Harry and Ginny Sweatt
Anonymous
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Program Notes
The year is 1600; you are living in Rome, and have heard the extraordinary buzz about a new
musical presentation. It is to be a splendid event, the creation of the well-known and versatile
composer Emilio de’ Cavalieri. It is a dramatic work, sung from beginning to end, and staged
and costumed, but performed in a chapel.
Expectations run high, yet what is this new music about?
We don’t really know — opera has not quite invented
itself, yet Cavalieri claims the invention for himself. There
is no plot to the libretto, but only a discussion about good
and evil; no one dies or goes insane. This all happens
much later, when operas become musical dramatizations
of romance, intrigue and murder.
Emilio de’ Cavalieri
For the first performance, because you have connections,
you have secured a seat in the back row. There are reserved seats in the front for thirty-three Cardinals and
their retinues. Their presence demonstrates the Church’s
seal of approval of this entertainment. The Oratory of the
church has been beautifully transformed with scenery
made especially for the opera. As the music rolls on, the
audience is greeted with the familiarity of dance forms
and rhythms already known to it.
Yet there really is something new: solo vocal music presses the words forward — much is said, quickly and dramatically. It is freed from the constrains
of choral polyphony and is direct, almost speech-like, yet is music at the same time. It is called
recitative — something recited. This is what quickly lights on fire what is probably the most
avant-garde center of music making in all of Europe, the city-states of Florence and Rome. It is
not long after Cavalieri’s opus that real opera begins to define itself.
Sitting there, listening to and experiencing this music, you will not necessarily be aware of
its momentousness. The importance of Cavalieri’s opera would be borne out later, but within
months, another opera is performed, and by 1607 Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo will stretch the boundaries of opera even farther.
No doubt many of us would give a great deal to be sitting in one of those back seats of yesteryear, yet we hope that by some extension, we may have in some measure tonight, this same
delight.
~ MMM
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Emilio de’ Cavalieri (1550-1602), a Roman nobleman who was not only a composer,
but a diplomat, organist, choreographer and dancer, was certainly an innovator, but he
did not just make up the opera. This “new” musical form was not an instance of creatio ex
nihilo, and although Cavalieri and some of his competitors certainly tried, nobody could fairly
claim to have “invented” the opera. Although Rappresentatione was likely the first fully-staged
work that was set to music from start to finish, it does not closely resemble what modern
listeners would recognize as an opera: That honor probably belongs to Claudio Monteverdi’s
L’Orfeo, first performed in 1607. Even the word “opera,” simply meaning “work,” was not
used to define a musical form until 1639 in Italian, and not until 1648 in English.
So where did this new thing come from?
Its roots are many, but we must begin in ancient Greece. Western drama originated in classical Greece; as early as the fifth century BCE plays were common enough to have become the
subject of competitions. But, as far as we knew, these plays were spoken rather than sung,
although music often appeared during interludes. In Europe during the Middle Ages, miracle
and mystery plays derived from Christian liturgies were performed, and these eventually
evolved into more substantial works with secular themes.
Beginning in the late fifteenth century, intermedi, theatrical productions featuring instrumental
and vocal music and dance, were performed between the acts of plays at festive occasions in
Italian courts, especially in Florence and Ferrara. Under the aegis of families like the Medici,
these intermedi grew increasingly elaborate, eventually becoming even more lavish than the
plays themselves. Although at first the intermedi were performed on the same sets as the underlying plays, eventually, having taken on a life of their own, they required their own sets.
The proscenium arch first appeared in the set design for the six lavish intermedi that were performed at the 1589 wedding of Ferdinando de’ Medici and Christine de Lorraine, Princess of
France. Cavalieri was employed at that time by the Medici family as the Master of Ceremonies
for its opulent musical spectacles, and also composed some of the music for the 1589 wedding
intermedi. By the time Cavalieri began work on Rappresentatione, intermedi had become standalone works and quickly morphed into the new form that would become known as the opera.
Whether Rappresentatione was really the first “opera” is the subject of some debate
among music historians. We do know that it was the first work of its kind to be published,
and its score included another published first: a figured bass, musical notation using numbers
and symbols under notes in the bass line to depict intervals and chords. Jacopo Peri’s Dafne,
composed around 1597, was probably the first entirely-sung theatrical production, but it has
been lost. The score for his Euridice, a much shorter work than Rappresentatione, has survived,
but it is seldom performed except as an historical artifact. Euridice was first staged in October
of 1600, but Rappresentatione had already been performed (twice) months before in February
of that year. In November of 1600, shortly after the Euridice performance (which Cavalieri produced), Cavalieri wrote a letter claiming that he, not Peri, was the true reviver of what he and
others believed to be the ancient Greek style of acting with singing. Peri later acknowledged
Cavalieri’s contribution in 1601 in his preface to the published version of Euridice.
And this brings us to the question of exactly what these early composers of “operas”
were trying to accomplish. While the new (or, it was believed, restored) form — a play that
was sung — was developing, there arose the question of the particular musical styles this form
would employ.
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Beginning in 1573, a group of scholars, philosophers, musicians and poets were holding
regular gatherings at the home of Count Giovanni de’ Bardi in Florence; this group later
became known as the Florentine Camerata. Prominent members of this group included Giulio
Caccini, Jacopo Peri, and Vincenzo Galilei, the celebrated lutenist and music theorist who was
the discoverer of the physical properties of vibrating strings, as well as the father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei (Eppur se muove! — Yet it moves!). Cavalieri also became associated with
the group, but not until a number of years after its initial formation.
One of the Camerata’s goals was to revive Greek drama as the group supposed it to have been
performed — that is, sung in its entirety. But in order to bring out the words of a drama, the
music — which the Camerata believed had become corrupt and decadent — would have to
become subordinate to the sung words, and therefore must be greatly simplified.
The Camerata’s solution became known as monody, also known as stile rappresentativo,
which was characterized by a single vocal line with instrumental accompaniment. This style
allowed the singer’s words to be easily understood, and represented what the Camerata composers believed to be the classical Greeks’ notion of dramatic declamation. The solo pieces in
Rappresentatione are excellent examples of this style in the early stages of its development.
Cavalieri, with some considerable exaggeration, actually claimed to have been the inventor
of monody, but that honor is usually bestowed on Vincenzo Galilei and Giulio Caccini. As the
result of an unsuccessful struggle with Caccini for control of the production of the festivities
associated with another Medici wedding, Cavalieri left Florence for Rome in high dudgeon
and never returned.
Cavalieri had nothing good to say about Caccini after departing Florence (evidently with good
reason, since Caccini was known to have double-crossed just about everyone, including his
own colleague Peri, to maintain his standing with the Medicis). About Caccini’s and Peri’s
compositions Cavalieri wrote: “[my] music moves people to pleasure and sadness, while theirs
moves them to boredom and disgust.” Soon thereafter Caccini wrote a collection of songs in
the monodic style, Le nuove musiche (published in 1602), which featured an introduction describing why and exactly how monodic music should be performed, including examples
of “correct” ornamentation. The feud over who invented monody, among other things, apparently continued until Cavalieri’s death in 1602.
The new monodic style of declamatory singing soon became the recitative as it appeared in
fully-developed operas, and was employed to advance the story line and to prepare for the big
number, the aria. Rappresentatione does not include pieces we would clearly recognize as arias,
but the monodic sections are alternately either more or less melodic and strophic; that is, the
monodies are not all merely declamatory. Unlike the earlier works of Caccini and Peri, they
often incorporate the dance rhythms of the intermedi. Later operas like L’Orfeo also included
strophic songs, and these evolved into the da capo aria of the high Baroque.
And speaking of “baroque” — the term has come to be applied to the period of approximately 1600-1750, during which the dominant style was of highly ornamented music, architecture and art. Although the Florentine Camerata composers claimed to be striving for simplicity, even their “simple” monodic style allowed for considerable ornamentation, instances
of which appear in Rappresentatione. By 1607, Claudio Monteverdi was writing spectacularly
ornamented passages like this one, from L’Orfeo:
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Since nature abhors a vacuum and virtuosi abhor a lack of opportunity to be virtuosic, the new
monody presented a blank slate for lavish ornamentation, which became progressively more
and more . . . baroque. During the later Baroque era, the opera became an established and very
popular musical form; almost everyone (with the notable exception of Bach) was writing them.
The first opera house opened in 1637 in Venice, making it possible for anyone with the price of
admission to enjoy an opera. Opera having been an Italian “invention,” libretti in Italian were
favored by many composers during the Baroque era and later. Many of the forty-two operas
composed by Georg Frideric Handel, a German living in England, were in Italian. European
composers soon began selecting libretti in their own languages, but for many years Italian was
the predominant language for the dramatic opera, or opera seria. Even as late as 1781, Italian
libretti so dominated the music scene in Vienna that Emperor Joseph II made a point of commissioning operas to be sung in German, most notably Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail.
Throughout most of the nineteenth century Italian and French operas prevailed, but by the
mid-twentieth century the concept of “opera,” at least for non-musicians, would usually conjure up a vision of large Teutonic ladies with spears.
The subject matter of the new operas, intended as they were to recreate the “correct”
performance of classical Greek plays, was, of course, classical Greek plays. Greek
dramas were the basis for the libretti of Peri’s Dafne, Caccine’s Euridice, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo,
Arianna, and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and many others, continuing throughout and beyond the Baroque period with works by composers throughout Europe — Purcell’s Dido and
Aeneas, a number of Handel’s operas, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice — but Rappresentatione had a
completely different theme. It is, quite uniquely, a philosophical discussion set to music. While
the underlying form had mainly secular origins, the content
was religious, although it was neither liturgical nor even
very overtly Christian.
Rappresentatione was first performed at the Oratorio
(Oratory) de Filippini next to the church of Santa Maria in
Valincella in Rome, the founding church of the Oratorian
movement. The Oratorians were a congregation of priests
and lay brothers founded by St. Philip Neri in Rome 1575;
the Oratorian Society still exists, and includes 70 Oratories
(the term for their religious communities and for the buildings used for services and meetings) throughout the world.
Santa Maria was given to the Oratorians by Pope Gregory
XIII and was rebuilt by Neri in 1575. The attached Oratory
was essentially a private chapel, used for services other
than masses and for meetings. Cavalieri and his family had
a long-standing and close connection with the Oratorians,
Church of Santa Maria
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including Neri himself. Cavalieri, having severed his relationship with the Medicis and the
Florentine Camerata and returned to Rome, made use of his Oratorian connections to acquire
both a libretto and a concert hall for his new composition. And, since the Oratorians’ philosophy emphasized simplicity, it was not surprising that they embraced Cavalieri’s new monodic
style of music and were pleased to sponsor these performances.
The libretto for Rappresentatione is attributed to Agostino Manni, a priest of Neri’s
Oratory. Manni’s libretto was based loosely on a dialogue between Soul (Anima) and Body
(Corpo) in the lauda “Anima mea che pensi.” Laude were sacred vernacular songs that originated in Italy in the Middle Ages, and were possibly influenced by the Troubadours. Some
texts of the laude that were sung in Neri’s Oratory were written by Manni; others, like the
anonymous “Anima mea” included in the Oratory’s Laudario (compilation of laude), were
much older. Some scholars believe the laude were themselves an immediate antecedent of
the Baroque oratorio, a term given to these works because as they developed they were often
performed in oratories. And some historians consider Rappresentatione, because of its religious
text, to have been the first oratorio. However, a work in the form of what is now considered
to be a true oratorio did not appear until almost 20 years later, with Giovanni Anerio’s Teatro
harmonico spiritual; and the first work that was actually called an oratorio, Pietro della
Valle’s Oratorio della Purificazione, was written in about 1640. The fact that Cavalieri instructed Rappresentatione to be
staged, with scenery, costumes and dances, supports its
classification as an opera, but later Baroque oratorios shared
many of the characteristics of the opera — elaborate instrumentation, recitatives and ornamented arias. Where Rappresentatione can be said to have been an anomaly, or perhaps a
thing that was neither quite opera nor quite oratorio — was
that its libretto was not only religious, but lacked a true plot.
The contemporaneous proto-operas, and those that followed,
told a story that moved in time (although not much time:
classical dramas were required to take place in one day).
As they deviated more and from “reconstructions” of Greek
plays, opera plots became increasingly lurid, and by the
nineteenth century they routinely featured themes of passion,
adultery, intrigue, madness and murder. Operas are still being written, and modern operas are often at least as dark and
bloody as their predecessors: Bela Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle,
Arnold Schönbeg’s Erwartung, Alban Berg’s Lulu, and Nico Muhly’s Two Boys are just a few
examples of this tradition. Opera composers have never quite abandoned the Greeks, either:
Consider Strauss’ Elektra, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek.
But Rappresentatione was never so flamboyantly dramatic, although it does contain a depiction
of hellfire. This opera has no doomed lovers, mad sorceresses, or murdered kings. Instead, it
features a collection of allegorical characters and a chorus, which provides commentary in the
manner of the classical Greek chorus, and also fills the roles of angels, damned souls in Hell,
and blessed souls in Heaven.
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Our performance opens with three instrumental sinfonias by Cristofano Malvezzi, a contemporary of Cavalieri who was probably also a member of the Florentine Camerata. Malvezzi,
like Cavalieri, composed intermedi for the festivals of the Medici family. The original version
of Rappresentatione followed with a lengthy spoken dialogue (“Proem”) between two young
men, Awareness and Prudence. Our performance omits this dialogue and instead picks up at
Act I, where Time tells us to do good works because time passes quickly and death follows.
The Chorus, followed by the Intellect, offer their comments, followed by a debate between
Soul and Body about the true purpose of life.
In Act II, the conflict between the forces of worldliness and those of the spirit intensify with
the appearance of additional characters: Pleasure, two companions, Worldly Life, and a
Guardian Angel. In this act the beautiful clothing is metaphorically stripped away from Pleasure and Worldly Life, revealing their true ugliness, and Body and Soul drive them off the
stage. In Act III, Hell opens up to show us the spirits of the damned, followed by the appearance of the blessed souls in Heaven. Soul, Body, Intellect, and Counsel together urge the audience to love God and shun the “defrauding world,” and together with the Chorus sing praises
to God.
This final celebration includes instrumental ritornelli and dances, in keeping with the traditions of the Florentine intermedi. Our production features dances in the style of the early seventeenth century, including the galliard (gagliarda in Italian), an athletic dance that with its
variants was popular throughout Europe at the time. The distinctive six-beat pattern of the
galliard will be familiar to the listener as the rhythm of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (or, if you
prefer, “God Save the Queen”):
Listen closely and you will hear this galliard rhythm in one of the ritornelli at the end of Act
III.
Cavalieri considered dance to be an essential element of his productions. He had produced not
only the music but the choreography for the final dances at the 1589 Medici wedding, and he
referred to this performance in the preface in Rappresentatione’s published score. He directed
that dances be performed at the conclusion of the piece, and included instructions for them,
remarking that “dances enliven these performances exceedingly.”
Rappresentatione is a fascinating and, for its time, an entirely avant-garde creation. We do not
present this work simply as an interesting museum piece, but as a magnificent and delightful
work that will enable the audience to hear “new” music with seventeenth-century ears.
~ MWM
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A Very Select Chronology
of World Events in the Era of Emilio de’ Cavallieri, 1550-1602
1550 Birth of Emilio de’ Cavallieri
1585 Death of composer Thomas Tallis
1587 English colony at Roanoke, Virginia, founded — then abandoned, its inhabitants
subsumed into Native American cultures
1588 England defeats the Spanish Armada
1590 Edmund Spenser’s The Fairie Queen published
1590 Composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, murders his wife and her lover
1591 Death of Vincenzo Galilei, father of Galileo, and early creator of recitativo style,
c. 1580, Florence
1592 First performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III
1595 First European expedition, led by Spain, to Polynesia
1595 Death of Filippo Neri, acquaintance of Cavalieri, Rome
1598 Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne
1598 First performance of a theatrical work in the New World, in what is now El Paso
1599 Death of Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero
1600 English East India Company established
1600 Peruvian volcano, Huaynaputina, explodes, creating the most violent eruption
ever recorded in South America
1600 Avant garde artist Caravaggio paints two works for the Chapel of San Luigi
dei Francesi, Rome
1602 Painter Peter Rubens is in Rome painting large format pictures for the church
of Santa Croce
1602 Death of Emilio de’ Cavallieri
1602 Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote de la Mancha is published
1603 Death of Elizabeth I
1607 Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo performed
1607 Jamestown, Virginia, established
1609 Champlain’s French colony established in Quebec
1609 Germany’s first newspaper The Relation debuts
1610 Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Virgine composed and performed, Venice
1610 Galileo publishes Sidereus Nuncius, describing the moons of Jupiter for the first time
1614 James Napier invents logarithms
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About The Performers
The Gregorian Singers, under the direction of its founding director, Monte Mason, is an
ensemble that has been dedicated to high standards of music for over forty years. The fourteen-voice ensemble has sung at the American Choral Directors’ national conference, a regional convention of the American Guild of Organists, a concert series at St. John’s Cathedral, Denver, and at the 2003 National Convention of the Episcopal Church. It has received radio airtime
in Minnesota and nationally, and is known for its broad repertoire, including chant and other
early music, shape-note hymns, and Norwegian folk-hymns, as well as newly-commissioned
works. http://www.thegregoriansingers.org
Monte Mason received a Bachelor’s Degree in piano performance at Macalester College in 1971. After additional musical studies at the University of Minnesota, he left academia to pursue perfomance opportunities, including the
formation of The Gregorian Singers at age 23. The abiding factors in this decision included a personal and professional yearning to learn more about chant
and to experience its performance. Howard Don Small, organist/choirmaster at
St. Mark’s Cathedral in Minneapolis, was instrumental in allowing this experiment to take place in the lovely visual and acoustic setting of the cathedral.
Almost forty years later, the rest has been history. Other positions and passions include organist/choirmaster at St. Martin’s by the Lake Episcopal Church in Minnetonka Beach, composer,
editor, piano teacher, writer, botanist, and maintaining various odd collections in his home in
South Minneapolis.

The St. Olaf Early Music Singers, directed by Gerald Hoekstra, is one of seven undergraduate student choirs at St. Olaf College. Membership is by audition only and typically consists of 14-20 singers. The ensemble focuses primarily on music of the Medieval, Renaissance,
and Baroque eras, and while it performs most of its music as a choral group, students also
have the opportunity to perform madrigals and other music appropriate for small ensembles
one to a part or as soloists with early instruments. The Early Music Singers presents a concert
each semester in collaboration with the Collegium Musicum and presents a chapel service of
Christmas music each December and a chapel service of Lenten music each spring.
http://wp.stolaf.edu/ems/
The St. Olaf Collegium Musicum, also directed by Gerald Hoekstra, is an ensemble of
St. Olaf College students that performs music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras
on historical instruments. Students in the ensemble learn to play and perform on instruments
owned by the college — recorders, viols, sackbuts, lutes, cornetts, etc. The Collegium collaborates with the Early Music Singers to present a concert of early music each semester and occasionally for other performances as well. http://wp.stolaf.edu/collegium/
Gerald Hoekstra is Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, where he teaches
music history and directs the Collegium Musicum and the Early Music Singers. Hoekstra earned his Ph.D. in Musicology at The Ohio State University,
completing his dissertation under the direction of Richard H. Hoppin. His area
of specialization is music of the Renaissance, particularly the French and Flemish chanson, but he also has interests in medieval music, the music of Bach,
and jazz history. As a performer Hoekstra has studied trumpet, recorder, viola
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da gamba, and choral conducting. He has published articles in The Sixteenth Century Journal, Early Music, Musica Disciplina, Speculum, and The Choral Journal; and he has published
critical editions of music of Hubert Waelrant, André Pevernage, and others, most recently an
edition of in three volumes of Pevernage’s Cantiones sacrae (Douai, 1578). Hoekstra currently
serves General Editor of the Yale Collegium Musicum series, published by A-R Editions. In
2002 he was presented with Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award, which recognizes
outstanding contributions to early music performance in higher education. From 2003-2009 he
served on the board of EMA and as chair of the Committee for Early Music in Higher Education.

The University Opera Theatre, directed by David Walsh, is a dynamic training
programme designed to provide the next generation of opera singers with the skills and
genuine performance experience they require to succeed in the professional world of opera.
UOT mounts two full mainstage productions with orchestra per year and offers, in addition,
lab classes on acting and stage technique, as well as scene studies from opera, operetta, and
musical theatre. The Opera History class provides a social and cultural context for the study
and preparation of operas and opera roles. UOT actively seeks performance opportunities for
the voice students in the broader Twin Cities community. Very special thanks to David Walsh
and the University Opera Theatre for its generous and multi-faceted support. Costumes for
our production were made by Julie Rithaler and graciously loaned from UOT.
https://music.umn.edu/ensembles/opera

Dance Revels Moving History, formed in 1990, offers a unique and engaging view of
upper Midwest regional history, as well as American and European history of the 16th-20th
centuries. Their mission is to portray active and inclusive stories of our ancestors, especially
those left untold. Director Jane Peck has created a new and exciting blend of period dance,
theater, and live music to tell these stories. They have performed at the Ordway Center, Walker Art Center, Mpls Institute of Arts, the Southern Theater, Festival de Voyageur of Canada,
Madison Early Music Festival, Duluth’s Early Music Orchestra under Shelley Gruskin. Dance
Revels has active performing partnerships with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and St. Paul
Chamber Orchestra. With sponsorship by Young Audiences of MN and MN State Arts Board
Folk Arts Roster Dance Revels, has toured their show, “A Voyageur’s Tale,” to Minnesota
schools and museums since 1998, telling the tale of French and French-Indian roots in the
Midwest. They now offer 4 different school shows of active regional, national, and European
history, as well as community dance evenings. Their concert performance offerings range from
baroque commedia theater with dance, to Jane Austen era dance theater, to early Midwestern
settlement era multi-ethnic stories, and finally the Ragtime era. Dance Revels has a strong commitment to live music. This unusual ensemble has produced joint performances with Musica et
Saltatore of Vienna, Austria and L’Ensemble Folklorique of Winnipeg, Canada.
http://janepeck.com/
Jane Peck is a choreographer, educator, and dance historian. She has researched and staged
history performances in dance and theater across U.S., Canada, and France for twenty years.
She has extensive training in both modern dance and dance history, directing her own per-
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formances with her company, Dance Revels Moving History, since 1990. Jane
recreates and choreographs dances from four centuries and several cultures. The
group performs school and museum shows through St. Paul Chamber Orchestra,
Young Audiences of Minnesota, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Jane has performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at the Ordway Center Minnesota,
and with the international faculty orchestra of the Madison Early Music Festival
Wisconsin. Jane has choreographed for numerous colleges and arts ensembles,
including famed Shelley Gruskin, Piffaro, New York Baroque Dance Company, Long Island
Fringe Festival, Jean Paul Cloutier (L’Ensemble Folkorique, Canada), and Sybille Dahms (Austria), among others. She has taught early dance workshops at the Early Music Institute of the
University of Indiana/Bloomington, University of Wisconsin/Madison, and nearly all Minnesota colleges. Jane has been an adjunct professor of music at the University of St. Thomas,
an adjunct professor of dance at the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College,
and is currently dance adjunct instructor at Winona State University. Jane and Dance Revels
produced the video, How to Dance with Bach, for musicians and music teachers in 2012. To
purchase: [email protected].

The Twin Cities Lute Cooperative was founded in 2004, and is an organization of lo-
cal lutenists which serves to promote performances of early plucked-string instruments such
as the Renaissance and Baroque lutes, the vihuela da mano, theorbo, and others in the Twin
Cities area. The organization presents a monthly concert series at Immanuel Lutheran Church
(104 Snelling Avenue South) in St. Paul on every third Thursday of the month from September
through May. Called “Thursday at the Lute Cafe,” it is an informal, coffeehouse-style recital
series which features the lute as either a solo instrument or performing in ensemble.
www.facebook.com/pages/Twin-Cities-Lute-Cooperative
Phillip Rukavina has performed widely as a lute and vihuela da mano soloist,
ensemble performer, and as a continuo lutenist. He has appeared on many major
concert series, including Early Music Now, Early Music Columbus, Music in the
Park, Seattle Early Music Guild, La Guitarra California, and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. He teaches regularly on the faculty of the Lute
Society of America’s Seminars at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,
directing the event in 2008, 2010, and 2012. Phillip has also directed the lute program at the Amherst Early Music Festival in 2005, 2007, and 2009. In 1998, Phillip
received a Travel Study grant from the Jerome Foundation, and was awarded a second Jerome
grant in 2003. He is a founding member of the Venere Lute Quartet, appearing on their three
critically-acclaimed compact discs Sweet Division (2003), Palestrina’s Lute (2007) and Airy Entertainments (2010). He has performed with various ensembles, including the Newberry Consort, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Rose Ensemble, and
the Gregorian Singers. Phillip studied lute with Pat O’Brien in New York and with Hopkinson
Smith at the Academie Musical in Villecroze, France, and in Basel, Switzerland.
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Laura Hynes (Producer): A Fulbright scholar in Paris, coloratura soprano
Laura Hynes spent six years abroad in France and Germany, performing
repertoire ranging from baroque opera with Les Arts Florissants to “classical
cabaret” on French television and radio. She has performed opera, solo recitals, and concerts throughout Europe and the US, including New York’s Alice
Tully Hall, the Barbican in London, and the Châtelet in Paris. Since moving
back to the U.S. in 2010, she earned her doctorate at the University of Minnesota as the Carolyn Bailey and Dominick Argento Fellow. She currently maintains a private voice studio in St. Paul, directs opera workshop scenes at the University
of Minnesota, and performs regularly in the Twin Cities.

Maria Jette (Anima) has appeared with The Saint Paul Chamber Orches-
tra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston, Kansas
City, Santa Rosa, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Austin, and San Antonio
Symphonies, New York Chamber Symphony and Portland Baroque Orchestra,
the San Luis Obispo Mozart and Oregon Bach Festivals, Tucson Desert Song
Festival, and the Oregon Festival of American Music; and for many merry seasons with much-missed Ex Machina Antique Music Theatre here in the Twin
Cities. She’s often heard locally with Vocalessence, Chamber Music Society of
Minnesota,
Minnesota Sinfonia and Lyra Baroque Orchestra; and nationally on A Prairie Home Companion.
Before breaking her leg last month, Maria’s busy season included the Prairie Home Companion cruise of the Mediterranean; a recital of Haydn, Mozart and Reichardt with fortepianist
Jacques Ogg; the inaugural concerts of the new Minnesota Vivaldi Festival with Henry Lebedinsky; the US premiere of Jonathan Dove’s There Was a Child with VocalEssence and Philip
Brunelle; Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Music St. Croix; Christmas Pops concerts
with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir; and Mozart’s Requiem with The Musicians of the
Minnesota Orchestra and Hugh Wolff. She and Dan Chouinard are currently finishing another
CD of P.G. Wodehouse’s lyrics (The Siren’s Song: Wodehouse and Kern on Broadway) for release this spring — their first CD, In Our Little Paradise, is available online. For upcoming
performances and other info: www.mariajette.com.

Nick Chalmers (Corpo) has recently sung with The Mirandola Ensemble,
Glorious Revolution Baroque, and the Minnesota Opera. Currently, Nick sings
with the The Rose Ensemble, teaches at St. Francis High School and Chesterton
Academy, and directs the Youth Choir and Schola Cantorum at Holy Family
Church in St. Louis Park. In 2007, Nick graduated from St. Olaf College, where
he was a member of the Early Music Singers and tenor section leader of The St.
Olaf Choir. He also sings occasionally with The Gregorian Singers.
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Sara Lin Yoder (Consiglio) recently graduated with a B.M. in Vocal
Performance from the University of Minnesota. Previously performed roles
include Nannetta (Falstaff), Susi (Die Fledermaus), Jessica (Sister Carrie),
Audrey (Little Shop of Horrors), and John the Baptist (Cotton Patch Gospel).
Sara currently lives in Minneapolis and is looking forward to attending
graduate school in the Fall of 2014.

Lauren Feider (Angelo custode) is in the final semester of her
undergraduate pursuits at the University of Minnesota, where she recently
performed Donna Anna in a chamber production of Don Giovanni. After
she graduates with degrees in Music Education and Vocal Performance,
she plans to formally continue her vocal training while advocating the
importance of music’s presence in schools.

Patrick Terry (Intelletto) is a recent graduate of the University of
Minnesota - Twin Cities, where he participated in the ECCO program, a
vocal training partnership with the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota
Opera. Patrick was a student at Summer Baroque Academy in Evia, Greece,
where he received daily lessons and coachings from Lynne Dawson and
Michael Chance.
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Upcoming Events from Participating Groups
 The Gregorian Singers 
Monte Mason, Founding Director
http://www.thegregoriansingers.org
Lenten Vespers
Great Paschal Vespers
Wednesday, March 19 ~ 7:00 pm
Sunday, April 27 ~ 8:00 pm
Bethlehem Lutheran Church
4100 South Lyndale Avenue, Minneapolis
Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church on-the-Hill
1524 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul
 St. Olaf College Early Music Singers & Collegium Musicum 
Gerald Hoekstra, Director
http://wp.stolaf.edu/ems/
http://wp.stolaf.edu/collegium/
Lenten Chapel Service
Spring Concert
Friday, March 14 ~ 10:10 am
Friday, April 25~ 7:30 pm
Lassus, Penitential Psalm no. 1:
Domine, ne in furore tuo
Music of Josquin, Lassus, Byrd, and Gabrieli
St. Olaf Early Music Singers
St. Olaf Early Music Singers
and Collegium Musicum
Boe Memorial Chapel, St. Olaf College
Boe Memorial Chapel, St. Olaf College
 University of Minnesota Opera Theatre 
https://music.umn.edu/ensembles/opera
The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček
Thursday–Saturday, April 10-12 (7:30 pm) Sunday, April 13 (1:30 pm)
Tickets: 612-624-2345 or https://www.tickets.umn.edu/UMATO/Online/
Ted Mann Concert Hall, University of Minnesota
 Dance Revels Moving History 
http://janepeck.com/
Our new instructional DVD, How to Dance With Bach, is for sale!
The perfect follow-up to a baroque and classical dance workshop by Jane Peck and Dance Revels.
Improve your performance practice and enjoyment! Contact: [email protected]
 Twin Cities Lute Cooperative 
www.facebook.com/pages/Twin-Cities-Lute-Cooperative
Thursday at the Lute Café
Third Thursday of every month from September through May
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 104 Snelling Avenue South, St. Paul